Editor’s note

This issue celebrates two giants of modernism exhibiting at Tate Modern this season - Henri Matisse and Kazimir Malevich, who each in his own way was intent on radical invention until the last days of their lives. With Matisse, it was his paper cut-outs that reflected an extraordinary new chapter in his final decade, witnessed not only (somewhat jealously) by his friend Picasso, but also by two of our contributors - Françoise Gilot (fellow artist and Picasso’s one-time partner) and Jacqueline Duhême, who at the time was a twenty-year-old assistant in Matisse’s studio. They both describe in captivating detail how Matisse would carve pure colour with pieces of paper painted with gouache to produce astonishing new works armed with only a pair of scissors.

You can get a fabulous insight into this process via the wonderful colour photographs of how Matisse lived ‘inside’ his work (as Duhême describes it), with the cut-outs placed all over the walls of his various studios. Many of these works are in the exhibition at Tate Modern, including The Snail’s ‘companion piece’ Memory of Oceania 1952-3, brought together for the first time since they were in their creator’s studio.

You will be able to compare and contrast Matisse’s journey in colour with the works of Kazimir Malevich - a truly revolutionary Russian artist, who as well as being a stylistic innovator, was also obsessed by man’s destiny to explore the world beyond our own, as Aleksandra Shatskikh reveals. He was undoubtedly a man ahead of his time, and his most famous work, Black Square 1915, continues to intrigue us almost 100 years after it was made. We mark his legacy here with a worldwide selection of artists’ voices, from India to Iran, from Russia to Poland, who remain inspired by many different aspects of Malevich’s œuvre, from the Suprematist abstractions to his late, great figurative works.

As well as our pages in Tate Etc., don’t forget that you can find extra articles, images and films about art, artists, Tate exhibitions and studio visits, plus insights into recent acquisitions, on our award-winning iPad app.

Simon Grant and Bice Curiger

Contents

Feature

Old shop signs, ships’ figureheads, spirit vessels, naïve paintings, needlework samplers… what is folk art? Steeped in tradition, and often created by self-taught artists and artisans, this unsung art form reflects an aspect of the UK’s cultural heritage that has often been overlooked. The co-curator of Tate Britain’s forthcoming exhibition British Folk Art presents some of the more unusual items due to go on display

The work of Indian artist Nasreen Mohamedi (1937-90) may not be well known but is greatly admired. Her meticulous small abstract drawings, as well as her photographs of desert landscapes and modern buildings, reflected her knowledge and love of art across the globe - ranging from the Indian abstractions of VS Gaitonde to the utopian ideals of Kazimir Malevich. To coincide with Tate Liverpool’s exhibition, the largest to date in the UK, the co-curator Suman Gopinath introduces her work

In his day Kenneth Clark was an influential patron, art historian, collector, gallery director and broadcaster - and one of the first to bring art and culture to more popular audiences, in particular through the landmark BBC series Civilisation in 1969. Views are divided as to his legacy, but, as one fellow art historian argues, we should also remember him as a passionate skilful art writer, whose ground-breaking works such as Landscape into Art 1949 and The Nude 1956 show that his 'deeply pondered eloquence is needed more than ever'

The show at Tate St Ives this summer explores the international context which shaped the work of artists in the Cornish town from the 1940s to 1960s. As Éric de Chassey writes, the broad exchange of ideas was not limited to American artists such as Rothko and de Kooning, but extended to French painters such as Nicolas de Staël, which would also reflect a shared interest in nature and landscape

Kazimir Malevich’s work tells a compelling story about the dream of a new social order, the struggle of revolutionary ideals and the power of art itself. Central to this was his prescient fascination with outer space, the cosmos and man’s destiny to explore it (at one point he kept a telescope in his pocket), and a key part of his art pre-empted Russia’s enchantment with travel beyond our world

The artist Lee Ufan grew up and studied in Korea before moving to Japan, where he has been based for more than 50 years, while spending much of this time in Europe. He is best known as one of the prominent members of the Mono-ha movement, which, with similarities to Arte Povera, had a focus on everyday materials, though, as he reveals here, his work has been informed as much by his transcontinental existence as his Asian roots. Tate’s curator of Asia Pacific research Sook-Kyung Lee talked to him in his Paris studio

Interview

In 1946 the young French artist Françoise Gilot met Pablo Picasso, a relationship that lasted until 1954 and produced two children, Claude and Paloma. In their early days he took her to meet Henri Matisse at his studio in Vence on the Côte d’Azur. It was the start of an important friendship during which she would witness Matisse’s extraordinarily inventive process of making his cut-outs. Tate Etc. went to meet the artist in her studio in New York to talk about these formative years

One person who witnessed Matisse making the cut-outs first hand was his one-time assistant Jacqueline Duhême, who, as a twenty-year-old aspiring artist, would spend two years working with the master. Here she talks to Tate Etc. about that life-changing experience

Artists' voices

For issue 31 of Tate Etc., we asked three contemporary artists to talk about their personal fascination with Henri Matisse. Here, Thomas Demand reflects on Lydia Delectorskaya’s photograph of Matisse in his studio

For issue 31 of Tate Etc., we asked three contemporary artists to talk about their personal fascination with Henri Matisse. Here, Beatriz Milhazes reflects on seeing the restoration of Acanthus 1953 at Fondation Beyeler, Basel

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Here, Soviet-born artist Ilya Kabakov discusses Malevich's Woman Worker 1933

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Here, London-based artist David Batchelor discusses his various encounters with Malevich

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Here, Iranian artist Barbad Golshiri discusses the influence of Malevich and The Black Square 1915

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Here, Wolfgang Laib reflects on the influence of Malevich, not only on his work but on his approach

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Indian artist Atul Dodiya discusses Malevich’s figurative paintings and their influence on his own work

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Iranian artist Farhad Ahrarnia reflects on his love affair with Malevich’s work

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Polish artist Paulina Olowska discusses how Malevich’s revolutionary painting encouraged her to create her own art

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. Artist Josiah McElheny discusses his experiences of engaging directly with Malevich’s work, alongside his own

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. The co-founder of artists’ group Irwin discusses the influence of Malevich, and their performance of Black Square on Red Square in 1992

When Tate Etc. invited a selection of artists from around the world to write about how Kazimir Malevich has inspired or influenced their work, we were not expecting the range of voices to be so richly varied and geographically diverse. American artist Mary Heilmann discusses how Malevich’s timeless logic ‘speaks to her’

Essay

Outdoor play should be fun, right? We have all enjoyed clambouring over a climbing frame. The urban playgrounds that we now take for granted appeared largely thanks to the enterprising Scandinavian urban planners, landscape designers and artists of the 1940s who saw the value of connecting play, art, education and public space. It was a golden age, when playgrounds became lively and imaginative places, but which is being gradually eroded by increasing safety standards and commerical pressures